Paris museums, from the Water Lilies to the giraffes
The Louvre is not the only museum in Paris, far from it. Here are eight places to ring the changes: big names, more intimate houses and plenty to wow the children. Several are free.
Petit Palais
Built for the 1900 World’s Fair, the City of Paris fine arts museum is as beautiful inside as out. The permanent collections are free, and the inner garden with its café makes you forget the Champs-Élysées next door. Allow an hour and a half.
Avenue Winston-Churchill, 75008 Paris
Coming up here: Paris Photo (12 to 15 November), Cezanne & Nous - Billet Simple (until 17 January), Girls - Billet Simple (until 21 March)
Musée Carnavalet
The museum of the history of Paris, in two grand town houses in the Marais. Old shop signs, scale models, the jeweller Fouquet’s shop designed by Mucha, Marcel Proust’s bedroom: you travel through the centuries without noticing the time go by. The permanent displays are free.
23 rue de Sévigné, 75003 Paris
Musée de l’Orangerie
At the far end of the Tuileries, two oval rooms lined entirely with Monet’s Water Lilies. Sit in the middle and let them do the rest. Downstairs, the Walter-Guillaume collection brings together Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso and Modigliani. An hour is enough: this is a museum on a human scale.
Jardin des Tuileries, place de la Concorde, 75001 Paris
Musée des Arts et Métiers
Heaven for children who take everything apart: early calculating machines, pioneering aircraft, automata, engines and models. The highlight is Foucault’s pendulum, swinging inside a former church. Allow two hours, as parents get hooked too.
60 rue Réaumur, 75003 Paris
Grande Galerie de l’Évolution
Under a vast glass roof, a caravan of African animals marches across the nave: giraffes, an elephant, zebras. Higher up, the hall of endangered and extinct species is a reminder of what has already been lost. Guaranteed to wow children and grown-ups alike. You will find it in the Jardin des Plantes.
36 rue Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, 75005 Paris
Coming up here: Sur les traces des dinosaures (11 November to 31 December)
Musée Rodin
The Hôtel Biron and its large garden, where The Thinker ponders in the open air. Inside, Rodin’s marbles and bronzes, and a room devoted to Camille Claudel. On a fine day the garden alone is worth the trip.
77 rue de Varenne, 75007 Paris
Musée du quai Branly
The arts of Africa, Oceania, Asia and the Americas in Jean Nouvel’s building at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. Masks, statues, textiles: you happily lose yourself in the half-light of the collections. The garden and the green wall on the façade are worth a look, even if you don’t go in.
37 quai Jacques-Chirac, 75007 Paris
Musée de la Vie romantique
A house with green shutters at the end of a cobbled lane, in the Nouvelle Athènes quarter. The painter Ary Scheffer entertained George Sand, Chopin and Delacroix here, and the drawing rooms still hold memories of that time. Small and calm, perfect for a quiet hour followed by a break in the garden.
16 rue Chaptal, 75009 Paris
Coming up here: 2:22 A Ghost Story (11 November to 3 January), Edouard Deloignon - Edouard Deloignon Grandira Plus Tard (13 November to 19 December)
Updated 10 November 2026.